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Another golf course is set to lose its protected green belt status, as the cocktail of the UK’s housing shortage and the financial struggles golf courses have faced in recent years continues to bite.

Rushcliffe Borough Council has put forward plans for Edwalton Golf Centre in Nottingham to lose its green belt status, with a view to the site possibly being developed.

The 113-acre public venue, run by Glendale Golf until its lease expires in 2017, is the only municipal golf course in Rushcliffe and is used for weekly lessons by a local primary school.

Councillor Dave Bell said nothing was in place for the course to be converted into housing, but refused to rule it out as a possibility.

Many golf courses in the UK could lose their green belt status so that they can be converted into housing estates. Images by Mescon

“While proposing to take the land out of the green belt, it is also proposed that it should be safeguarded to remain as open space for the time being,” he said.

“While the land is not required for development currently, should this situation change in the future, it may be brought forward for development.”

Local resident Margaret Hood, 76, said: “We need green spaces, it is ridiculous that people will have to get in a car and drive somewhere to have a nice walk.”

Edwalton Primary School’s head teacher, Brian Owens, who takes the children to the golf course around once a week for lessons, added: “It is a valuable community facility and a lovely green space.”

The news comes just a few weeks after Bracknell Forest Council lifted a covenant protecting Blue Mountain Golf and Conference Centre’s land from development, even though three local authorities agreed to protect the land for 125 years in the 1990s.

The golf course will be converted into 450 houses, two schools and a football pitch, although it is thought that it will take years for this process to be completed.